Chef Xander's Cooking Birthday Party

A few years ago Cucina Bambini opened up near our house in Willow Glen.  It is a hands-on cooking school for kids. We'd driven by, and we've always been curious. And to our pleasant surprise it also does birthday parties. Picture 14 kids making their own pizzas, and decorating their cupcakes in a kitchen that you don't have to clean-up afterward... Awesome.

Now, last year's Aloha Scooby Doo Mystery Birthday Party was fantastic. It also set the bar for kid's birthday parties in our neighborhood, and  caused a sizable decrease in the number of home-hosted birthday parties this year. It was fun, but it was also a lot of work. Who can keep up?  Certainly not us. And truthfully, this year we wanted the party to be easier, shorter and elsewhere.

Cue Cucina Bambini - two hours of educational cooking fun. It was also a perfect party for Xander who loves crafts and creative endeavors. He is my shadow every Sunday, helping to cook our weekly pancake (or waffle) brunch.

In preparation for the cooking party the boys and I made chef's hats (purchased a box of paper Chef's hats) for all of the kids attending. I created a "pizza restaurant" like typeface in PowerPoint, printed out each child's name in the typeface, and bought 8,000 stars to decorate the hats. You'd think that I would still have a lot of stars leftover, but our neighbor (who also attended the party) helped decorate and he created an elaborate red piranha with stars on his hat... but that is another story. I was also able to buy The Everything Kids Cookbook on Amazon as party favors for under $5, and because of a special that week it was buy three get the fourth one free.

So, I was set-up on the party favor front and Cucina Bambini handled the rest. Our party started at 11 am. The kids washed their hands and put on aprons before they started to make dough from scratch. They got to measure the flour, water, oil, salt ... They made the sauce from scratch and Xander even got to operate the pan and spatula and cook the sauce. Then the kids rolled the dough, and put toppings on their pizza.

While the pizzas cooked in the oven, the kids decorated their cupcakes with frosting and candy. By the time they were finished decorating the pizzas were ready. I was amazed at how well behaved fourteen kids at a long restaurant table were ... but when they are invested in the meal, they are less likely to whine and climb under the table.

Then we sang the birthday song, and they got to eat their cupcakes. Xander loved it, and I think most of the kids did too. Now, what should we do for Caleb's sixth birthday? I'm thinking a Sharks Super Soaker party at home ...